2005 FASEB Summer Research Conference on Ciliate Molecular Biology to be held August 3-8, 2005 at IL Ciocco in Tuscany, Italy

“第十一届国际纤毛虫分子生物学会议”将于2005年8月3日至8月8日在意大利托斯卡纳的Il Ciocco举行。这次会议将汇集来自不同国家的160-170名科学家。这些研究人员使用纤毛原生动物作为他们的模型系统，使用分子方法来研究各种生物学问题。从历史上看，对纤毛原生动物的研究为重要和普遍的生物过程提供了许多非凡的见解，例如在衰老过程中染色体末端的侵蚀和在发育过程中染色体的重塑。耶鲁大学的Joel Rosenbaum将就“纤毛和鞭毛生长的控制：鞭毛内运输的动力学”发表主旨演讲，这是一个与纤毛发生在任何地方--肺、精子、肾脏、胚胎发育和其他地方--相关的重要话题。纤毛虫分子工具的不断发展使其成为研究包括人类在内的各种真核生物共有的众多生物过程的良好模型。这次会议旨在将在这些不同领域工作但因使用纤毛虫作为模型而团结在一起的研究人员聚集在一起，以促进未发表的研究成果和技术进步的有效交流。将有九个平台会议、两个研讨会和两个海报会议。平台会议的主题代表了活跃的纤毛虫研究领域。主题领域包括DNA和染色质，范围从利用基因组信息的基因组组织和进化；细胞结构和功能，包括运动性、发育和环境传感；以及纤毛虫研究技术。研讨会的主题是“基因组学”和“教室里的纤毛虫”。基因组学研讨会旨在进一步发展纤毛虫基因组测序工作，并将基因组信息的使用提高到一个新的水平，并使研究人员能够分享关于纤毛虫快速出现的后基因组资源的信息。第二期工作坊的主题是“教室里的纤毛虫”。纤毛原生动物因其生物学复杂、体型大、培养要求简单等特点，长期以来一直被用作教学工具。受2003年FASEB会议的启发，许多与会者进一步开发了利用纤毛虫的教学模块(主要用于本科课程)，并在网站上提供了信息。研讨会不仅将提供一个交流此类教学工具的论坛，还将为本科生组织一个全球分布的纤毛虫分子生物学项目。国家科学基金会的资金将用于帮助支付研究生、博士后研究员和初任教师参加会议的费用。

The "Eleventh International Meeting on Ciliate Molecular Biology" will be held as a FASEB Summer Research Conference at Il Ciocco in Tuscany, Italy, from August 3 through August 8, 2005. The meeting will bring together 160-170 scientists from a variety of countries. Using ciliated protozoa as their model system, these researchers employ molecular approaches to investigate diverse biological problems. Historically, work on ciliated protozoa has provided a number of remarkable insights into important and universal biological processes, such as the erosion of the ends of chromosomes during ageing and the remodeling of chromosomes during development. The keynote presentation will be made by Joel Rosenbaum of Yale University on "Control of Ciliary and Flagellar Growth: Dynamics of Intraflagellar Transport," an important topic relevant to cilia wherever they occur - in lungs, sperm, kidneys, embryonic development and elsewhere. The continued development of molecular tools for ciliates has made them favorable models for studying numerous biological processes shared with a wide variety of eukaryotic organisms, including humans. This meeting seeks to bring together investigators who work in these various fields but who are united by their use of ciliates as models, in order to foster the efficient exchange of unpublished research results and technical advances. There will be nine platform sessions, two workshops and two poster sessions. The topics of the platform sessions represent areas of active ciliate research. The topic areas include DNA and chromatin, ranging from genome organization and evolution through the use of genomic information; cell structure and function, including motility, development and environmental sensing; and technologies for the study of ciliates. The workshops will be on "Genomics" and "Ciliates in the Classroom." The genomics workshop is intended to further develop the ciliate genome sequencing efforts, as well as bring the use of the genomic information to a new level, and to enable researchers to share information on the fast-emerging post-genomic resources for ciliates. The second workshop focuses on "Ciliates in the Classroom." Ciliated protozoa have long been used as teaching tools because of their complex biology, large size, and simple culture requirements. Inspired by the 2003 FASEB meeting, many conferees have further developed teaching modules (primarily for undergraduate courses) that utilize ciliates and have provided the information on web sites. The workshop will provide a forum for not only exchanging such teaching tools, but also organizing a global distributed ciliate molecular biology project for undergraduates.Funding from the National Science Foundation will be used to help defray the costs of attendance at the meeting for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and beginning faculty.